San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-03-25
1T WAS POOR LYLE,
The Newspaper Man, Not r. b. Hayes,
That Suicided at Fort Worth.

The Newspaper Man, Not r. b. Hayes,
That Suicided at Fort Worth.
The man that suIoided at Fort Worth
on Wednesday night, under ciroum-
stances detailed In the LIGHT, was not
X. b. Hayes, the ex.mail agent at San
Antonio, but another man who bears
well known In the city. Ii was William
Rodney Lyle. late OF Chicago, but at one
time city editor Of the SAN ANTONIO
LIGHT.
From the evidence ofhis uncle-in-lsw,
Mr.. L. l.. Hallenbeck, OF Wise county,
adduced before the inquest Jury, II APP
pears that his mother, Mrs. Lyle, re-
Gently discovered signs OF mental aber-
ration In Lyle. and thinking that q
change OF scene would be beneficial. she
sent him to her sister, Mrs. Hallenbeck,
at Auburn. While there he was quiet.
well behaved and rational. On We'd
Wednesday Mr.. Hsllenbeck and Lyle
went to Fort Worth, "a Lyle was
then on his way to st. Louis. Whilst In
Fort Worth Lyle drank considerably,
which was not his custom, and his mind
became unsettled. He had an hallucin-
alton that every one was talking about
him, and hearing Conductor Hopley say
that he had put a crazy man off at Dali
las, he asked II he (Hopley) referred to
him. Hopley answered. laughingly,
mo-" but said that Lyle did talk like q
crazy man. This talking Of him, as he
thought, seemed to gall him, and he re-
marked that he would kill some one be-
fore he left town, but no notice was
taken OF what was supposed to be an
idle threat. Then Hallenbeck and Lyle
went to the Trinity saloon, where they
had drinks. There Lyle tried TO claim
relationship with the proprietor, who
bears the same name, and got into
an alteration with a man named
Mayfield, when Hallenbeck got him
away from the saloon. As they
went along the street Lyle said that men
were talking about him and he intended
to get pistol to defend himself. Then
he turned abruptly up side street and
was not noticed until he was discovered
In the thrOes Of death To gentleman
who was with him on the train
he said that he was going to Fort Worth
TO fight the divorce suit OF his wife,
Mary, when as q matter OF fact he was
never married. Lyle was subject to fits
OF melancholy that absolutely controlled
him, and there is little doubt that these
spells and the unbalanced state OF mind
was the cause Of his suicide. The deed
was done with British Bull dog revolt
yer, ~ oalibre, and the ball lodged In
the brain.
Lyle was the son OF an old river boat
captain who lived many years in st.
Louis where the family Is well known and
most highly respected. He was for the
part q self-edueated man, a wide reader
and deep thinker. He was attached
to the Missouri Republican, the St.LOuls
Post Dispatch, Daily News, and other
prominent st. Louis papers, and won
record rs an industrious and brilliant
newspaper man, but his sensitive nature,
dogmstism, and uncongeniality, made
him few friends. For some time he was
with the LIGHT, and during that engage
ment he got into an alteration with e.
M. Barnes, then a Times reporter, but
now justice OF the peace, In which he
shot and seriously wounded the embryo
Justice. For this offence, he escaped
with light fine. After being a deliv-
cry clerk In the postoffice, he went to ST.
Louis, and from thence to Chicago,
where he became local reporter and
special correspondent for the Chicago
Times. While discharging his duty he
had difficulty with an engineer who
called him dude and used other offen-
sive names, wherein Lyle stabbed his
reviler In a serious manner and was sem
fenced to two years imprisonment In
Joliet. He completed his term and was
recently released. Since then he has
been doing "space work" and special
commissions on the Chicago papers, but
1t was evident that his sufferings and
imprisonment had shaken his mind.
This fact was demonstrated BY wild in
coherent letters that the writer has re-
ceiyed from him during the past two